{"id":108924,"date":"2026-04-08T12:19:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T16:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=108924"},"modified":"2026-04-08T17:22:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T21:22:34","slug":"policy-brief-explores-visions-for-indigenous-housing-in-niagara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2026\/04\/policy-brief-explores-visions-for-indigenous-housing-in-niagara\/","title":{"rendered":"Policy brief explores visions for Indigenous housing in Niagara"},"content":{"rendered":"

NOTE: Brock University announced the creation of its\u00a0<\/em>Indigenous Research Grant<\/em><\/a>\u00a0in 2021. This is one in a series of articles profiling the research of the\u00a0<\/em>2025 recipients<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>of this yearly internal award. Read more on the series\u00a0<\/em>on The Brock News<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mary Ellen Simon can\u2019t help but reflect on the bitter irony of what she encounters across Niagara\u2019s urban areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve seen Indigenous men sitting homeless out on the streets,\u201d says the Housing Programs Director at the Niagara Regional Native Centre. \u201cI always say to myself, \u2018Why are we homeless on our own land?\u2019 This doesn’t make sense. Our resources have been extracted and yet there are no resources to house our people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simon and her colleagues in the Indigenous Housing Advisory Circle (IHAC), which consists of a half-dozen Indigenous organizations in Niagara, have been co-researching access to housing for Indigenous peoples in the region with Brock University Adjunct Professor of Political Science Joanne Heritz and Associate Professor of Political Science Liam Midzain-Gobin.<\/p>\n

The group recently released their policy brief, \u201cIndigenous Visions of Making Home in Niagara<\/a>,\u201d through Brock\u2019s Niagara Community Observatory (NCO).<\/p>\n

The brief gives an overview of land rights and treaties, outlines principles guiding the research, and highlights two case studies of Indigenous housing projects in British Columbia and Manitoba.<\/p>\n

Over the course of two years, the researchers held extensive conversations and sharing circles with 90 Indigenous community members to gather information on the challenges of, and potential solutions for, access to adequate housing.<\/p>\n

“We need to listen to their stories,” says Heritz. “Indigenous community members are disproportionately affected by the housing crisis and they experience racism and discrimination in housing more so than non-Indigenous people.”<\/p>\n

The brief\u2019s findings include:<\/p>\n